The K.I.S.S. Principal Applies Here, Too

March 7th, 2014 by Shane Yerkes

In the World of Incident Reporting and Business Process Workflow, the K.I.S.S. principal is applicable to the fundamental work you do. If you’re not familiar with the K.I.S.S principal, it’s an age old acronym for Keep It Simple S……. (enter your own defamatory ‘S’ word, here). Though truly it’s a reminder as to how we should approach certain tasks and job functions that may seem otherwise daunting, particularly in the collection of data. Whether you’re collecting data to measure performance metrics, mitigating a risk portfolio, or providing requisite data in order to follow Federal, State, and / or Corporate guidelines and mandates, collecting the data is the easy part. What is not simple however, is the consideration for how to utilize that data. At least not without the proper tools. And surely you’ve heard the colloquialism, “The Right Tool for the Right Job”; a slogan from True Temper Tools that began in 1907, and a slogan still in use today. In Incident Reporting, CIP Reporting is indeed the right tool for the right job. Though more than that, we keep the three basic concepts of collecting information, enforcing process, and utilizing data, simple…

Collect the Data

If you’ve read any of these blog posts, certainly you’ve read the words “collecting data is the easy part.” And it is… Data collection is attained by simply asking questions. Whether collected in a report-specific software application, a homemade PDF document, or if you’re gathering information on the back of a napkin, you’re always capable of collecting data. CIP Reporting was designed with the user in mind, or that’s to say, the Report Writer in mind, to provide an exceptionally easy-to-use interface based on the user’s role in the organization as well as their permissions in the system. At which point, it’s simply a matter of transferring the information into the report itself. Simple…

Enforce Process

The challenges begin to come in to play when you have to move that data and protect its viability.

Who needs to see the data collected?

How do you get it there?

Does it follow an approval / rejection / escalation process?

Can anyone see the information collected?

If you’re able to answer those questions, then surely you realize simply distributing business critical information via email means a certain level of vulnerability and exposure to your data potentially putting yourself, your employees, your customers, and your organization at risk! And that doesn’t even take into account the integrity of the process required to manage the data and its approvals and escalations. email is hardly a tool to manage process, and so its reliability is questionable at best. By utilizing CIP Reporting’s rules-based process and workflow engine, not only are you able to quickly and easily collect the data, but also insure the integrity of the information collected while assigning process to it and thus never losing a critical report again.

Use the Data

Okay, so now we’ve collected the data, the right people have seen it and/or added to it and/or approved it and/or escalated it – or any combination therein, but now what? With the right tools, in this case CIP Reporting, that data has viability and usefulness available at your fingertips! With a few clicks of the mouse a user with the appropriate access to the data is able to quickly and easily aggregate it, cross tabulate it, and create ad-hoc visual analytics in seconds! How often have you been asked to provide analysis on an otherwise random set of criteria that, simply for the asking, seems as though it could take hours, if not days, to collect, tabulate, and present for an upcoming meeting? Take for example the need to aggregate all the patron medical events that occurred at the main entrance to a facility between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm for the last three months. What if that same criteria is requested of multiple facilities? How easy is it to pull that information together? And how are you able to mitigate risk if you’re unable to gather those (example) metrics? With CIP Reporting, those criteria searches are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you’re able to do with the data you’ve worked so hard to collect.

So the next time you’re tirelessly sifting through piles of files and seemingly endless data, and you find yourself thinking, “there’s got to be a better way!”, keep the K.I.S.S. principal in mind. Because with CIP Reporting, keeping it simple is what we do!

Shane is a creative, entrepreneurial-minded sales executive with a focus on start-up and growth based software companies. With a consistent track record of exceeding revenue targets, He attributes his success to a very simple business philosophy; Solve real business problems through the solution, never sell for what's not there. Google+

This entry was posted
on Friday, March 7th, 2014 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Product.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.